Search and Destroy: Take 2
by CatEarsAndPunchingAllTheThings
Summary: Post Volume 2 AU. Bumblebee. Ozpin decides to allow the students of Beacon another field trip, as a reward for their hard work during the Grimm outbreak. Teams RWBY and JNPR both wind up on a Search and Destroy mission in the Emerald Forest, but for once they don't run into trouble- unless you count 'sticking two people who are secretly in love with each other in the same cabin'...
1. Sun and Storm

**Editor's note: so, I originally uploaded this story with the title 'Sun and Storm'. That is the title for** _ **this chapter**_ **only… guess my 'you're a competent human being!' celebrations were premature… I hope my writing doesn't suck as much as my I.T skills!**

 **If you couldn't already guess by my inability to use this website, this is my first story here (well, anywhere, actually) so constructive criticism would be much appreciated!**

 **Without further ado...**

 **Editor's note number 2: this chapter is now brought to you by 'line breaks'!**

 **DAY 1**

'Okay... so… you can wipe that smirk off your face, Weiss, because you might have the "best cards", but guess what? The Smugglers of Wind Path are gonna smuggle those sweet babies right into our hands! Right Blake?'

'Right!' Blake declared, caught up in Yang's enthusiasm. She waved the card in a slow, threatening manner in front of the scroll.

Weiss raised an eyebrow. 'Ruby and I agreed that you can't use that card, actually, since you decided not to grace us with your presence.'

Yang's grin became a grimace. 'What?! Since when was that a-'

'Oh, and kiss goodbye to your precious Vacuo Warriors, because I checked the weather and… well, looks like there's a Sandstorm heading your way-'

'YOU MONSTE-'

The call dropped, and anguish was replaced by horror. Yang pressed a few buttons on her scroll, and then smacked it on the floor, in case that would fix things.

Nope.

Blake watched, amused. 'The weather must have interfered with the signal,' she said.

Yang huffed. 'What if Ruby messes up our pieces? I wouldn't put it past her, the little sneak.'

If she was being honest, Yang didn't really care about the game. She'd insisted Blake play with her, but that was just an excuse to huddle together under blankets on Yang's bed. Right now, Yang's left arm was touching Blake's right, and even that tiny bit of contact made Yang stupidly happy.

Something at the back of Yang's mind screamed that she shouldn't be feeling this way- that Blake pretty much had a boyfriend, for Dust's sake- but, for now, she could ignore it.

'We'll get our own back,' Blake smirked, her smile fading as she glanced outside.

When Ruby had made them get up stupidly early, in order to play Remnant: The Game, the weather had been so awful that the two of them had elected to stay in their own cabin and play the game via scroll, rather than face the elements for the 10 second dash across to Ruby's. Ruby had duly deposited a variety of cards- getting soaked to the skin, despite Yang's assertion that "anyone who moves that fast doesn't have time to get rained on"- and the gloomy sky had been forgotten in the heat of the battle.

And now, an hour later, the weather looked even worse. It was early morning, but to look out the window you'd think it was the dead of night.

Yang looked at Blake's pressed back ears, and started reaching across to pull her in for a hug, before realising what she was doing and pulling the blankets tighter around her instead.

Their eyes locked. Yang's heart sped up.

 _Shit, she realised what I tried to do-_

'You know, just because I'm...' Blake began, 'just because I-' She stopped, frowning.

Yang waited.

'Just because Sun and I have gone on a couple of dates, it doesn't mean like you should feel that you can't hug me anymore,' Blake said, looking wounded.

 _Crap... I didn't want her to realise that I like her as so much more than a friend, but instead she thinks I'm just acting differently to avoid pissing off Sun, who isn't even fucking here-_

 _Wait. Does that means that she thinks that if Sun heard about it, he might think there's something going on between us? Does that mean she could like me back?_

'Are you saying that we act like a couple?' Yang said, careful to keep her tone light and jokey. She even threw in a wink for good measure.

Blake blushed, breaking eye contact. 'N-no, uh, just that, I don't want anything to change between us,' she told the blankets.

Yang's heart sunk a little, but she agreed with Blake.

 _I agree for my own selfish reasons. But if Blake really doesn't want me to stop flirting, or hugging, or-_

'Do you want some coffee?' Blake asked, untangling herself from the pile of bedding and rising to her feet.

 _Woah, someone's ready for a change of topic. She did say she wanted me to act normal around her, though..._

'Hey!' Yang exclaimed, watching her walk off. 'What about our hug?'

Blake blushed, again. _God, she's so adorable._

'I'll be back in a second,' Blake called, switching on the coffee maker.

 _Well, that's not a "no"... and she did just have a go at me for not hugging her._

'Coffee?'

Yang realised Blake was still waiting for an answer. 'Yes please,' she said quickly.

 _Okay, let's get things properly back to normal…_

'Love you, Blakey,' she added, grinning.

Blake's face now rivalled Ruby's hood, only making Yang's grin wider.

'Is the scroll still dead?' Blake shouted, above the roar of the coffee machine.

Yang had completely forgotten about it. She picked it up off the bed side table, pressed a few more buttons, blew on it, and tentatively punched the screen.

Nope.

'Deader than Pyrrah and Jaune's Ursai!' she called.

 _Heh. The look on Jaune's face…_

Blake placed two steaming mugs of coffee on the bedside table, and climbed back into Yang's bed.

Yang couldn't hide the dreamy smile on her face.

 _With the weather like it is, we'll be stuck together for the whole day..._

* * *

 _Hey… this isn't my dorm room? Where am- and why is Blake in my bed- not that I'm complaining-_

 _Oh, right._

 _We're on another mission._

Yang had no idea how long she'd been asleep, but, judging by the fact that Blake was halfway through her book, it had been a while.

 _Damn… I hug Blake for five minutes and then I doze off._

It had been a nice five minutes, though. She sat up, and stretched.

'Howsa book?'

Blake jumped, and Yang chuckled. 'Sorry, didn't mean to scare you there.'

'It's good,' Blake mumbled, placing her bookmark on the page and closing the book before turning to face Yang.

'Must be a pretty depressing read.'

"The History of Faunus Rights" looked pretty heavy to be reading on a Saturday morning, but then again, Yang wasn't a Faunus, and she wasn't Blake.

Blake looked confused for a moment, and then nodded. 'Yes. But it's an important topic for me.'

Yang remembered Blake's confession, Weiss' outburst, her and Weiss' search…

'Can I read one of your books?' she asked, to pull herself out of the past.

 _Weiss admitted her prejudice. Blake knows we love her as she is… Dust, do I love her._

'Just to kill some time, you know.'

Blake blanched.

 _Woah… okay then…_

'I know I don't seem like a reader, but, uh, well, it can never hurt to… give new things a go, right?' Yang laughed awkwardly, rubbing her neck.

'I really don't think they're the kind of books you'd enjoy,' Blake said quickly, glancing at her pile nervously. 'Non-fiction. Really quite dull.'

 _Eugh. Maybe not…_

'You didn't bring any stories with you? Not even a little cheeky romance novel? That's not like you.'

Blake blushed, and Yang felt bad.

'Sorry, didn't mean to diss your choice there or anything… you know what, I might go and... clean the sink, or something-'

'Sun got them for me,' Blake blurted out, looking just as surprised at this piece of information as Yang was.

Yang squinted at the pile of books on Blake's bedside table. 'Sun… bought you... "A Comprehensive Guide To The Different Sap Types Of Forever Fall?"'

'... Yeah.'

'...That's...cute?'

They stared at each other.

Yang's scroll rang, and they both sighed in relief.

Blake passed it to her, and rested her head on Yang's shoulder.

 _She's just tired, you dolt._

'Ruby, you better not have messed with our pieces- oh, hi, Professor!' Yang greeted. 'You fancy a chat or something?'

Ozpin smiled. 'I'm always happy to talk, Miss Xiao Long, but I think you know why I'm calling. I've just spoken to the rest of your teammates, after trying to get through for quite some time. They appear to be having some kind of party.' Ozpin took a sip of coffee.

 _I bet Weiss is overjoyed with that… Ruby and Team JNPR stuck in one tiny cabin. Sheesh._

'It's the weather, isn't it?' Blake said.

'Yes, Miss Belladonna, you are quite correct. Forecasts show that the storm will continue until very late at night. Now, Ruby argued with me that Hunters and Huntresses must do their duty, regardless of how mother nature feels that day, but- as I will say to you now, Yang, as I see you're desperate to interrupt- there is a difference between carrying out life-saving work, and doing a routine Grimm clearout. No offence intended.'

'We understand, Professor,' Blake said, but her shoulders slumped.

Ozpin nodded. 'As I knew you would. It's no use going out into a storm and getting injured for the sake of a few Ursa, as I'm sure you both know.'

There was an awkward pause.

'Well, I bid you ladies a pleasant, and... hopefully not _too_ eventful day. You don't want to be too tired for tomorrow, after all.' The call ended.

Yang couldn't look at Blake. Ozpin's comment had been said in his usual sarcastic manner, but was there something… teasing underneath it all? Did their Headmaster… want them to be together?

 _He's just saying he hopes we don't go crazy, like the others are…. Like Ozpin would ever be so euphemistic._

 _Okay, so he totally would be, but still._

'Well, guess this means there's signal again,' Yang said. 'We can see what everyone else is up to-'

Blake's scroll rang. She put it to her ear.

'Hey, Ruby-'

Yang was pretty sure that her sister's screech of joy could be heard from Mistral, as Blake flung the scroll onto the bed, wincing.

'Blake! Yang! We've been trying to reach you guys for so long, but there was no signal, and we got bored of playing the game so then Jaune suggested hide and seek and I'm supposed to find them all and I found Nora already because she was hiding under Weiss' bed-'

The call dropped, but a second later Ruby rang back, undeterred. 'Wow, the signal really sucks here! And then I found Pyrrah and Jaune, because they'd both tried to hide in the cupboard under the sink and were all squished together, but anyway, you two should totally come and play with us!'

Yang looked at Blake, who shook her head violently.

'Uh, Rubes, don't you think it's a bit cramped round there already?'

'Yeah!' Ruby said cheerfully, 'but it's totally fine, because Ren and Nora are practically together-together, so they don't mind sitting really close to each other, and Pyrrah and Jaune, well, you know them, so it's basically like a bunch of couples!' There was a pause.

Blake and Yang looked at each other.

'N-not that Weiss and I are going out!' Ruby said hurriedly. Yang thought she heard something about Neptune, but it was too quiet make out what. 'Ha, ha... well, are you coming over or what?.'

'We-' Yang began, but there was a flash of lightning, and the scroll was on the floor, and Blake in her arms.

* * *

By the time Yang got out the bath, she half feared her skin would stay wrinkled forever.

Watching water swirl down the plughole, she sighed.

 _I could have reheated it with my semblance, but I'm not even angry._

 _Well... I'm so jealous I feel like punching something, but anger and jealousy are different things, right?_

 _I wanted to stay in that bath all day… but that isn't fair on Blake._

She paused, and listened for noise outside the bathroom.

It was silent. Blake must have finished her phone call.

 _That_ phone call.

She'd tried not to take it as a personal rejection. The second Blake jumped into her arms, Yang's brain had been filled with thoughts of holding her close, comforting her, turning that frown upside down and those ears back up…

And then Blake had scrambled out her arms and burrowed into bed, hunched over and shaking and shying away from a hand on her shoulder, until finally Yang had shook her fantasies out of her head, reduced her ego, and suggested Blake call the person she needed most right now.

'I'm sure he could _brighten_ up your day…'

Blake had said she'd do it, that she wanted some privacy, if that was okay. So Yang had run her bath, and got in it. And cried, silently. It was all so stupid.

She was incredibly, red-eyed monster jealous that Sun had been the one to comfort Blake, had been the shoulder to cry on. Sickeningly, repulsively jealous. And she had been the one to fucking suggest it.

It made no sense. Sun had done all sorts of things with Blake (Yang twitched at the thought of the more... 'physical' things), so why was this affecting her so much?

Yang rested her head against the bathroom cabinet, and closed her eyes.

 _Because this was supposed to be time away from that stupid son of a Beowolf!_

This was supposed to be the moment she confessed her feelings, before Blake became officially 'coupled.'

In the past she'd kidded herself that Blake did or said little things that showed she felt the same way.

...And then she'd not wanted Yang's comfort, and Sun had told Yang he'd decided to ask her out when they got back to Beacon. He clearly thought he had a high chance of success.

Yang dried her body, and her eyes. She brushed her hair, far harder than necessary.

 _Okay, maybe I am a little pissed off._

She opened the cabinet above the sink, and sighed.

 _Of course I left my moisturiser on the floor… well, it can't hurt to skip a day, unless…_

* * *

Blake was so engrossed in her book that Yang couldn't see her face. _Those Faunus ears heard me come over here, so why hasn't she looked up?_

 _She probably doesn't want you to see how scared and upset she is,_ the sensible part of Yang thought. _Head back to the bathroom, moisturise, put some clothes on, and go chill out. Medidate. Think things through…_

But Yang had lost her rationality.

She stood there, gaze fixed on Blake, shaking slightly, though whether it was from anger, or the beginnings of some kind of breakdown, she couldn't tell. Didn't care. Some part of her registered that the storm outside had calmed to heavy rain. But there was a storm inside of her, brewing...

 _Why won't she look at me? She said she didn't want our friendship to change, so if I stand here in this little towel, and she looks up, it's not my fault if she likes what she sees..._

It was a last-ditch attempt, before she let her thoughts give up the ghost. An experiment of sorts.

And one Blake wasn't taking part in. Yang fiddled with the moisturiser bottle, shuffled her pile of crap around with her right foot, glared at the scroll on the bed- an unwelcome reminder of Sun- and watched Blake turn 2, 3, 4 pages... before giving up and heading back to the bathroom.

 _If I stood there too long, and she looked up, it would make me look like some kind of creep._

She resumed her 'resting against the cabinet' position.

 _Just go to Ruby's cabin, you need to get away- it's not like Blake's alone, she has Sun-_

Yang's stomach rumbled, in an excellent impression of Bumblebee, snapping her out of her wallowing. _Oh, what the hell. Time for a second breakfast._

Of course, there was no logical reason to make an omelette in just a towel, but it would have been a shame to abandon the little experiment so soon.

However, with the methodical nature of heating the pan, cracking the eggs, adding the butter and salt, keeping the mixture moving… she became so engrossed in the task that she actually forgot Blake was in the room-

'Yang?'

Yang nearly dropped the frying pan on her foot, and the empty glass bowl on the floor, managing by some feat of gymnastics not to do either. There was a whispered 'sorry!', but Yang was too engrossed in returning the objects to somewhere where they wouldn't ruin her meal, or her cabin, or her life, to respond.

Once she was satisfied that her (second) breakfast wasn't about to kill her, she turned to Blake...

Who was blatantly checking her out. Yang straightened her spine, and smirked. _Take that Sun, who's shining now, ay-_

'Don't you want to put an apron on or something? In case you get burnt-'

'What do you think aura is for?' Yang snapped.

 _Reading too far into things again, you idiot. You're making her so uncomfortable she has to come up with some shit excuse to get you dressed. What in Dust's name do you think you're playing at, anyway?_

Blake gawped at her.

Yang sighed. 'I'm sorry… I just hate being cooped up in here. It's driving me crazy.'

She attempted to salvage the omelette. The anger had passed. Now there was just an aching sadness.

She still couldn't bring herself to get dressed, because that would mean admitting that Blake wasn't attracted to her. She pressed a finger straight down into the hot pan, watching as her aura flared up to protect her. _I can't get physically burnt, but every time she looks at me, that burns..._

'Maybe we should have gone with the others,' Blake said quietly.

 _Is that code for 'I want to get away from you'?_

'Maybe,' Yang admitted, wondering how the day had gone so wrong.

* * *

'Howsa book going?' She asked later, through a mouthful of rubbery omelette. Guilt still clawed at her insides.

 _I snapped at Blake. She didn't deserve that…_

'Fine.' One word answer. Not good.

'Have you got to the bit about the Schnee Boycott yet?' Yang remembered writing the world's most boring essay on that last term. Weiss' and Blake's had both been over 10 pages long...

Blake looked at her blankly, and then seemed to recover herself. 'Oh, uh, no- not yet.'

Yang was putting her plate in the sink when it dawned on her. She ran over and snatched the book out of Blake's hands, Blake too stunned to react.

 _If this is what I think it is…_

As she opened the book, Yang also involuntarily opened her mouth; first in awe, and then horror, and then a kind of mix between the two.

 _Ruby is never, ever reading these. They will corrupt her. What kind of stupid vampire name is '_ _Odax Lagnier', anyway?_

She stared at the fake book cover.

 _Well, this is some next-level shit._

Yang's mouth fell open further as another thought occurred to her.

 _Sun... bought... Blake… erotica?!_

She had expected to feel more rage, more jealousy, but actually she found the whole situation hilarious.

 _No wonder Blake didn't want me reading her books…_

Sun had bought Blake erotica. It didn't seem real. She never would have even _suspected_ -

 _Dang... somebody wants that Bella-booty._

Blake snapped out of her shock and reached for the book, eyes pleading, but Yang moved backwards to her own bed.

 _Does she enjoy reading this kind of thing? Does she imagine that it's her and Sun-_

No. She was going to see the funny side of this, for Dust's sake. It was a chance to get things back to normal, lighten the mood. A plan began to form.

 _Let's do what I do best: break the tension with some light teasing._

'Are you hoping Sun's going to turn up and fuck you against a tree, be your own personal glittery, creepy, vampire stalker?'

It came out twisted and bitter. Spat, not laughed. The tension dispersed, then reformed, thicker than ever, like knocking down a nest of Rapiers.

'No wonder you were so eager to go hunting today,' Yang mocked, unable to stop what she'd started.

But Blake just sat there, jaw and fists clenched.

It wasn't the reaction Yang wanted.

So, without breaking eye contact, she tipped her head back and moaned.

Blake's eyes narrowed.

Yang brought her hands to her towel-covered chest and _squeezed_.

Blake followed the movement, biting her lip. Something in Yang registered that she seemed to be enjoying the display, but that was too bad: Yang's goal was now pissing her off, not turning her on.

'Oh, Sun,' Yang moaned, closing her eyes and spreading her legs so wide that the towel almost unravelled. 'Take me right here, I don't care that the others might see us, please-'

She writhed in pretend ecstasy, increasingly frustrated by Blake's lack of response.

'I don't like the storm,' Yang whimpered. 'I want to be filled with Sun, instea-'

'What the hell is your problem?!' Blake snarled.

It was like she'd backhanded Yang across the jaw.

Yang sat up, shaken out of her stupor, and wrapped her arms around her chest. She felt sick.

 _I went too far. Way, way too far._

Blake glowered at her from across the room.

Silence.

'I was just teasing-'

'You weren't, and you know it,' Blake snapped.

Yang lowered her eyes.

'What the hell was that?' Blake repeated, her posture stiff enough to rival Weiss', her voice so low it was practically a growl. Yang had rarely seen her so angry. 'It's almost like… like you're jealous, or something.'

Yang froze.

Dare she admit it? She couldn't exactly ruin her friendship with Blake more than she already had.

'I am.'

Blake faltered.

'...Jealous of Sun?'

Yang couldn't read Blake's expression. Was that fear, or disgust, or… a flicker of _hope_?

No, _that_ was just wishful thinking.

She lost her nerve.

'I'm jealous of the relationship you have with him,' Yang said. It wasn't a lie. Just not the whole truth.

Blake opened her mouth to speak, and Yang panicked.

'I haven't been with anyone in a while... it's kind of lonely, to be honest. I see you and Sun and…' Yang sighed. ' Sorry if I took the teasing too far, Blake. I was just messing around.' The last part was entirely genuine. She had never truly wanted to hurt Blake, for Dust's sake.

Blake slumped.

 _I really fucked it up this time, didn't I?_

'Can I have my book back now?' Blake asked eventually.

She moved off her bed, over to Yang's, and stood in front of her, arms at her sides. They stared at each other for a moment, Blake's eyes full of sadness, and disappointment, and hurt. Blake reached for the book, now lying on the bed, but Yang moved it behind her back, wanting full resolution of where they stood.

'Blake, I need to know if I hurt you, and then you ca-'

Blake had stretched too far to right herself, and everything seemed to happen in slow motion: Blake slipping on the pile of crap Yang had left on the floor, flying forwards, knocking Yang back into the bed as Blake fell on top of her-

They froze, Blake's hands- shaking, barely supporting her weight- either side of Yang's head, her legs either side of Yang's own, trapping her. Yang forgot how to breathe, her own hands gripped on Blake's waist. She had thrown the book behind her on the bed in a reckless effort to catch Blake in her arms, and Blake went to reach for it, her arm brushing the towel barely wrapped around Yang's body-

 _Shit! I mean, I wanted her to undress me, but not like this-_

Blake looked down at the hand on her wrist, and then up at Yang.

'One more move, and I'm gonna be naked, let me tell ya,' Yang whispered.

It wasn't a flirt, or a threat. Just a statement of fact. If the towel did fall, she had no idea how either of them would respond.

Blake stiffened, eyes wide, cheeks flushed. Her arm lay on Yang's chest, stilled but not limp, and Yang could feel the hammering pulse in her wrist, the tension in her legs, the still emanating anger... but there was more than _just_ anger.

Blake closed her eyes, and that frown could mean anything.

 _If this was going how I wanted it to go, we'd having some kind of hate sex by now… Dust, if the whole day had gone how I'd wanted, we would have spent most of it in this position…_

 _And we would have confessed our love to each other, and lived happily ever after._

Yang's hand fell back onto the bed, no longer attached to a wrist. The bathroom door slammed shut, the lock screeched- turned in increments, as if by shaking fingers.

Yang closed her eyes, and turned a sob into a cough. Her clothes were still in the fucking bathroom from foreverago, so she pulled on a pair of pyjamas and climbed into bed, dead to the world in seconds, despite the swirling thoughts, and the lingering smell of Blake.

When she woke up an hour later, Blake was still in the bathroom.

When, two hours later, the door handle turned, Yang rolled over and pretended to be asleep.

Blake and Yang didn't speak to each other for the rest of the day.

When Yang half awoke at Dust knows when, she had one of those quick, fleeting thoughts, the kind forgotten by morning:

She hadn't actually heard Blake make the call to Sun.


	2. Highs and Lows

**Author's Note (Meta Author's Note: I don't know why I wrote 'Editor's Note' last time, this whole thing is just a mess I'm sorry guys): this chapter is more action-based, seeing as they are on a mission, after all. We also get to see a whole lot more of my favourite non-eponymous team, team JNPR!**

 **Thank you for all the views, follows and reviews so far! It's brilliantly weird to know that people are actually reading this, and maybe even enjoying it.**

 **Blake and Yang are both pretty stubborn, so it's gonna take a while before they actually think rationally about things...**

 **Day 2**

Blake's eyes flew open.

 _We're being attacked! I've got to protect Yang-_

It wasn't until she was half out of bed, reaching for Gambol Shroud, that her sleep-addled brain saw sense.

The cabin was silent, apart from Yang's gentle snores.

There was no sign of any Grimm trying to break in.

 _It was probably just a bad dream. Chill out._

Clambering back into bed, she rubbed her eyes.

 _I have_ not _had enough sleep, thanks to spending the night silent-crying because of yester-_

 _Nope. We're not gonna go there._

Blake kicked her duvet off. It was too warm.

Sun was pouring in through the blinds.

 _Thankfully not the person… Dust, I'm not supposed to feel like that! He's a sweet guy…_

But guys weren't exactly Blake's type.

She rolled onto her stomach and groaned into the pillow.

Some of this could be blamed on Adam.

Passionate as he was about Faunus rights, he had viewed anyone who was anything other than heterosexual as 'unnatural'.

 _Which is quite ironic, considering a key belief of the White Fang is that Faunus should not be discriminated against because of how they were born… that son of Beowolf..._

So, though Blake knew that Adam talked a load of shit, and would never declare _anyone else_ as having 'unnatural' or 'disgusting' attractions, she struggled accept her own... 'women-only'... desires.

Particularly considering that the person she was attracted to was one of her teammates.

And that said teammate, far from returning her advances- like that would ever happen- could possibly find her attraction repulsive.

It was highly unlikely, but Blake wasn't about to take any chances.

And that said teammate's sister could also possibly find such a thing abhorrent- Ruby was one of the most non-judgmental people Blake had ever met, but you can't be certain about these things.

And that her other teammate- though deep down Blake thought her more likely to commiserate on the struggles of shaking off a homophobic upbringing (if she looked at Ruby the way Blake believed she did)- was extremely likely to harbour deeply conservative views on such an issue.

It was often said that, Faunus rights aside, Remnant was a land of great equality.

Clearly, people who believed such a thing had never met people like Adam.

With sexuality, the repercussions were societal, rather than legal: there was the right to marriage, and anti-discrimination laws, and so on, but that didn't stop people being dicks. People were still assumed to be heterosexual, and, speaking of which...

In addition to the probable rejection and abandonment by all the people she loved, there was also the fact that, after three dates and 5 kisses of various lengths, there is no easy way to say:

'You're great and all, but I can't like you like that because a) I'm in love with someone else and b) that someone else is a girl, also c) I only like girls, can we still be friends?'

...without sounding more 'string-a-long' than those 'wouldn't-know-a-piece-of-cheese-if-it-crept up-behind-them-and-said-BOO' cheese strings Ruby liked.

 _In summary, I'm more fucked than the heroine in "Vampire's Bite"-_

Blake's cheeks heated, both at the thought of certain passages of the novel, and of Yang's discovering it yesterday.

 _At least it looks like a nice day, so I can spend it avoiding Yan-_

 **Thud. Thud. Thud.**

 _Oh._

 _That's why I woke up._

* * *

As Blake crept towards the door, weapon in hand, she peered at her cabin mate, whose bed was closest to the noise, and who therefore should, if she had working ears, be up and ready to fight right now.

 _Has she turned deaf overnight?!_

Yang was dead to the world, wild hair and a sliver of forehead the only thing visible.

Blake hesitated. Did she try and wake her, or deal with this alone?

Yesterday had been awful. Talking to Yang would bring those memories out into the open.

Blake had intended to go so long without talking to her that they forgot both yesterday ever happened.

 **Thud. Thud-thud-thud.**

The door was shaking.

Fuck it.

She shook Yang by- what she thought was- the shoulders.

The body underneath her hands was limp and unresponsive.

'Yang! Wake up! Something's trying to attack u-'

'S' just Ruby.'

Blake glared at her unmoving partner.

 **Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-**

'She must be in trouble! How can you just lie there-'

'That's her "really really excited" knock.'

There was an unspoken 'duh' on the end of the sentence, and Blake just knew that Yang was rolling her eyes.

'How could you have forgotten…oh…'

'I think if Ruby had ever knocked on our dorm room door like that I would have remembered it, Yang-'

'She wanted to show us a new defense position Pyrrah had taught her. Weiss nearly pissed herself,' Yang chuckled, sitting up suddenly.

She stretched her arms above her head. Her hair was a messy halo around a slightly puffy face. Had she been crying?

Blake didn't want to dwell on that thought.

 _She looks beautiful._

Yang frowned at the bed. 'I forgot. You weren't there.' She looked Blake straight in the eye.

 _Uh oh._

'Where was I?' She couldn't not ask.

Yang stiffened, then sighed.

'You were on a date with Sun.'

 _Oh._

'We should see what Ruby wants,' Yang said, after a beat. 'Else she will break down the door, she is related to me after a-'

'If you two don't hurry up and get your butts out here I will carry you out here myself!' Ruby yelled. 'Everyone else is already up and outside! Hurry up or you'll miss it!'

'Miss what?' Blake asked Yang, but the bathroom door had already slammed shut.

She sighed, and sat down on Yang's bed, the same bed where-

Today wasn't going to be awkward at all.

* * *

'Okay, what is _up_ with you two?'

Blake fought the urge to run from Weiss' piercing gaze, internally sighing in relief when it was directed at Yang instead...

...Yang, who huffed and turned her back to all of them, arms crossed.

 _Great._

'I'm guessing they've had an argument,' Ren said, glancing at Yang.

Blake fought the urge to cross her own arms, deciding to play with her bow instead, though it probably gave away her unease just the same.

'Do you want to talk about it?' Ruby whispered in Blake's ear.

Weiss tapped her foot.

Blake shook her head.

Pyrrah placed a hand on Yang's shoulder. It was ignored.

Weiss' eyes narrowed. 'Whatever happened to make you two so weird around each other, I don't really care right now-'

'But you just asked why they were-'

Weiss sighed at Ruby's confused expression.

'They were supposed to infer that they were being complete idiots, and stop being complete idiots.'

'Oh, right.'

'Anyway, I don't care whether you've had a lover's tiff' -Yang inhaled sharply, and Blake forgot to breathe- 'or what, just don't let it effect the plan.'

 _What in Dust's name did Weiss mean by that?_

Pyrrah whispered something in Yang's ear. Yang shook her head sharply.

'Yang spends the entire walk not making a single pun- or saying anything really- and Blake looks like Glynda's just announced a surprise test that makes up half our grade, arghh you're both so-'

'Ready to kill these Nevermore?' Jaune interrupted. 'Because, uh…'

Yang turned round, evidently relieved at the change of topic.

Weiss blinked.

'...One of them just woke up!' Nora exclaimed, from high in the trees.

Eight sets of eyes were fixed on the ruins, which, so long ago, had been the home of the relics deciding their future teammates for the next four years. Two of the Nevermore hadn't moved, still asleep on the podiums. The third stirred violently.

Weiss cursed, and grabbed Myrtenaster.

'Okay, everyone remember the plan?' Jaune said calmly, leader voice in action.

He didn't wait for an answer.

 _I don't like the plan, but it's the cleverest (though cruelest) way to do it..._

'We attack in 10, 9, 8, 7…'

They watched, silent and helpless, as the Nevermore took flight, swooping past the relics.

'Well. There, _quite literally_ , goes the plan,' Yang commented.

Blake let out a breath she didn't realise she had been holding. Burning Grimm alive, even if they were Grimm, had seemed somewhat barbaric.

Weiss glared at Yang. 'Nobody-'

A rose petal fell in front of her face, and she groaned.

Blake watched Ruby chase after the Nevermore, cape flying.

'Nobody else- no, don't- Yang!'

Yang tore after her sister, grinning.

'Nobody else move, alright?!'

Blake obeyed, because it put some distance between her and Yang.

 _Dust, I really shouldn't be thinking about our argument right now, I need to concentrate on-_

'You can't all go!' Weiss screeched, and Blake snapped back to reality- to the backs of Pyrrah, Nora, and Ren, respectively.

Pyrrah looked around her, and realised she had company. She skidded to a stop, and then ran back to Weiss. 'Sorry, I didn't realise they were both following me.'

Jaune put his hand on Weiss' shoulder, his eyes having never left the remaining pair of Nevermore. 'That one's also stirring.'

Blake followed his gaze. Only the smallest Nevermore was still sleeping peacefully.

Weiss groaned.

Jaune patted her back.

'I'm still here, don't worry. We'll be _fine_.'

Weiss buried her head in her hands.

The Nevermore raised its head, but then drooped back down again.

'We have to move, Weiss,' Blake said.

Weiss looked up, grim-faced. 'Okay, in 10-'

Pyrrah grabbed her by the arm. 'No time for that!'

They ran, Blake not liking the odds of four Huntsmen defeating two Nevermore.

Weiss fired Myrtenaster, dust bullets exploding into the nest, and the whole thing went up in flames.

 _Okay, now we just need to stop the Nevermore from trying to leave…_

The Nevermore that had been stirring rose from the flames like a phoenix, and began circling them, firing feathers everywhere.

Jaune turned and ran.

'Head for the trees!' he screamed.

'You traitor!' Weiss yelled.

 _This is bad, this is bad-_

Pyrrah threw her shield at the Nevermore. It bounced off, the creature unharmed, and the Nevermore fixed its gaze on the shield's owner.

'I'll distract it!' she yelled, running into the forest and continuing to hit the Grimm with her shield, 'you focus on the one that's still asleep!'

Weiss and Blake shared a look of panic.

Nothing was visible over the towering flames.

 _Dust, we could burn down the entire forest._

'Jaune, we could use a little help over here!' Weiss shouted to a smudge of blonde in the tree tops.

'Look out!' was the reply, and Blake heard a horrible scream from behind her. She turned.

The _Nevermore_ had made that noise. It was smouldering, small flames licking at its feathers, but that didn't stop it from diving out of the nest, and aiming right for Weiss and Blake.

They ran back towards the forest, Blake firing Gambol Shroud in its gun form, Weiss trying to freeze the creature's right wing, but the bullets bounced off, and the ice just melted upon contact. Blake could feel the air stirring as the Grimm closed in.

'Dive!' she yelled, at the same time as Jaune screamed from the tree-tops: 'Weiss, place a glyph two metres below me, now!'

Blake threw herself down, hands breaking her fall, and rolled over to see Weiss slamming into the earth, the Nevermore's right wing grazing her back. The creature was going too fast to change direction.

A battle cry sounded from behind Blake, and she looked over to the forest: Jaune was falling- no, _leaping_ \- onto the glyph, launching into the air towards the Nevermore, seconds before the creature was destined to crash to the ground. His aura glowed yellow around him.

Grimm and metal collided as Jaune slammed Crocea Mors' shield form up into the Nevermore's approaching beak, the resonating whine of contact making Blake wince. Jaune flew over the top of his shield and continued his ascent, still yelling, as the bird reeled and collapsed to the ground. Jaune's aura was flickering.

'I'll secure the Nevermore,' Weiss said, as the two girls got to their feet. 'You-'

'Rescue Jaune?' Blake finished. From that height, even his aura might not protect him, especially now that it had already taken a considerable hit.

She loaded a violet dust cartridge into Gambol Shroud. As Weiss began her second attempt at freezing the Nevermore's wings, Blake started to sprint. She formed a crouching clone a metre away from her and leapt onto it, before creating another slightly higher up, and another, and another…

When she was high enough to be able to see over the top of the trees, Jaune started to fall.

Blake's shadow copies only lasted a few seconds; if she stopped moving, the clones under her would collapse, and she would too would fall. She threw Gambol Shroud's ribbon over to Jaune, continuing her climb.

'Jaune! Hold this!'

Jaune grappled blindly with the ribbon, clinging on for dear life as Blake used Gambol Shroud to swing it clockwise around her, like a lasso.

'What the hell are you _doing_?!' He wailed, eyes firmly shut.

'Your weight will drag me down otherwise,' Blake called. 'Just hold on!'

His eyes snapped open. 'Are you saying I'm _fat_?'

Blake started to place her clones lower down, beginning the descent. As they got closer to the ground, she swung Gambol Shroud around slower and slower, until Jaune's feet touched the ground and he let go, collapsing in a heap. Blake leapt off her last clone and stopped, panting.

'Thanks,' Jaune said weakly, his face a pale green. 'I'll go and help you and Weiss in a minute.' He stood up, swaying. 'Now, if you'll excuse me…'

Blake hurried back towards Weiss, as the sound of vomiting filled her ears. The heiress was standing, arms crossed, next to the struggling but still frozen-in-place Nevermore, as-

Yang.

'Jaune flew in a nice Arc, don't you think?'

Weiss rolled her eyes.

Yet to be noticed by the others, Blake muffled a laugh.

And then her scroll rang.

* * *

'Hello?'

'Blake!'

Blake tried to muster up the same level of enthusiasm. She forced a grin onto her face.

'Hey, Su-'

'Wait! Is this a bad time? You're not about to get eaten by a Beowolf or anything, right?'

'Would I be taking this call if that was the case?'

'...touché. I'd hate to have a dead girlf- I'd hate for you to die.'

 _Oh Dust, he almost called me his girlfriend, what if he's about to ask me out?!_

 _I can't say yes, but I have to say yes-_

'...Me too.'

'That's another thing we have in common, aside from the fact that we're both ridiculously good looking.'

Blake forced out a laugh.

 _If only I could find you good looking..._

'How's Professor Port?' Blake asked, and she was rewarded with a long complaint that only required the attention of one set of ears…

'Oh Dust, I can't _believe_ Ozpin agreed to Glynda's stupid idea of having all the non-Beacon students shadow your professors because, no offence Blake, but if I have to hear the seventh part of the tale of how Professor Port cleared out a desert full of Goliaths with only a toothpick I might just…'

 _I can't say no just because I'm fixated on Yang, that's not fair on him. But then I can't say yes just to force myself to move on from her-_

 _But maybe over time I will find him attractive?_

 _And people have sex with people they aren't attracted to all the time, it's not like he's a horrible person, he's hardly Adam-_

 _Why am I even thinking about having sex with him?!_

 _I know who I'd rather-_

'...Faunus do deserve to be enslaved, don't you think, Blake?'

'W-what?!'

'Somebody started daydreaming, huh.'

Sun laughed, but Blake was filled with guilt.

'I'm sure all your thoughts were of me…'

 _Am I cheating on him by thinking about her all the time? I mean, we're not going out yet, but this isn't right._

 _I'm a bad person._

'I'll call you back later, when you're not so distracted by your fantasies of me, okay?'

'Bye,' Blake forced out.

'Remember, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Try not to miss me _too_ much, Blake.'

Blake was about to respond that it hadn't even been three days since they last saw each other, but then she was forced to acknowledge that any time she spent away from Yang physically, she certainly didn't spend mentally.

When it came to Sun, she'd practically forgotten he existed.

Sun hung up.

Blake hung her head.

* * *

After getting thoroughly chewed out by Weiss for leaving her, Yang and Jaune to kill the Nevermore ('...and then I cut its head clean off!' 'Only after you fell off the glyph twice and forced Yang and I to hold it down, because all you achieved was cracking the ice so it was freed! You idiot!' 'Yeah, well, maybe if you'd placed it lower down the tree that wouldn't have happened!'), Blake was now partnered with Yang to go after one Nevermore, whilst Weiss and Jaune went after the other.

Considering Weiss could hardly stand Jaune, she must have thought that Blake and Yang needed to talk things through.

 _Well, we haven't spoken a word to each other since Ruby tried to break the door down, so Weiss is suffering for nothing._

 _I won't talk to her even if the others are in grave peril and we have to work together to save them._

 _Dust, that's deeply unprofessional. How will I ever graduate Beacon?_

 _Ozpin would be disappointed._

 _I'm a terrible person._

The pair of them had managed to defeat small groups of Ursa and Boarbatusk without verbal communication.

 _I suppose we just know how the other works now. We've gone beyond words._

 _Isn't that what happens in good romantic relationships?_

 _Shut up, brain._

There was a cry from beside her, and Blake glanced round to see Yang lay into a pack of Beowolves that she herself hadn't even noticed. She worked so fast, eyes glowing red, that Blake just stood there, almost afraid of getting in her way. Within seconds, the creatures were killed, but Yang didn't move, breathing heavily.

 _Did I cause this?_

Blake thought back to Yang's teasing yesterday.

 _No._

 _She brought this upon herself. She's the one that should apologise._

 _But she did apologise!_

 _Shut up, brain._

Yang finally looked up from the forest floor, where the bodies of the Grimm had long since dissolved.

Their eyes met.

 _Wow, the ground sure is kind of interesting, I get why Yang kept looking at it, I could stare at it all day_ -

* * *

It became a pattern: Yang flying into random fits of rage, and taking out Grimm with a fierce intensity, whilst Blake just watched from the sidelines.

An hour had gone by since they'd last seen the others, but Blake couldn't get signal on her scroll, and, from the cursing, Blake gathered that Yang had the same issue. There was no sign of either of the Nevermore, either.

In a forest like this, she soon lost track of direction. Had they walked through here before? She sure wasn't about to ask Yang.

Each extra minute they went without speaking was one that made it harder to _start_ again- which was fine by Blake, as she had no intention of beginning the conversation. But she was kind of pissed off that Yang wasn't going to make the effort.

 _Part of me used to think that, of all of us- me, Weiss, Ruby, Yang- I was the coward. But look at Yang right now, not talking to me..._

 _Oh, who am I to talk? ...Wait a minute-_

They both chuckled, and then looked at each other in surprise. Blake got the distinct feeling that they were somehow laughing at the same pun.

 _She does love her puns. Great minds think alike-_

 _No. Surely we're not laughing at the same thing. That's such a couple thing to do-_

'...What's so funny?'

Yang blinked at her. Blake had broken first.

 _Dust dammit! Why am I so worried about us seeming like a couple anyway, even if Yang didn't think I liked Sun, it's not like she's ever mentioned liking girls, just guys-_

'I, uh- I was just remembering a joke.'

Yang was lying.

Blake's heart somersaulted between elation and sickness at the realisation that they had indeed had the same thought at the same time.

'What were you laughing at?'

There was no trace of anger in Yang's voice. She looked earnest, like she genuinely wanted them to start talking again.

For some reason the thought of everything going back to normal made Blake freak out.

 _No no no no-_

 _Isn't it better this way?_

 _She can't tell that I'm in love with her if she thinks I hate her!_

Yang was still waiting for a response. Now she just looked sad.

Blake pushed down the feeling of guilt.

'Nothing.'

And with that, they were back to ignoring each other again.

* * *

Somewhere along the line, Blake and Yang had got separated.

And Blake was totally cool with that. It was hard to wallow and obsess over the same old thoughts when you can practically hear someone else think.

She knew where one of the Nevermore was now, but she wasn't going to help out.

Ren, Nora, Pyrrah and Ruby were doing just fine on their own.

'I never knew it could take so long to kill _one_ Nevermore,' Ruby moaned a few moments later, slumped against a tree stump. 'It was pretty easy the first time around.'

Blake had to strain to hear Pyrrah's reply: 'The first time we were here, your team could focus all their attention on the one Nevermore. We had to deal with a Nevermore, two Death Stalkers, and a pack of Ursa all at the same time! Give yourself some credit Ruby, we all did a really good job!'

'I need cookies…'

Ruby pulled out a giant cookie from battle skirt.

Nora had fallen asleep.

Pyrrah, being Pyrrah, was being a good Huntress and stretching her legs.

Ren was scanning the tree-tops.

They made eye-contact.

 _Crap._

Despite having two sets of ears, Blake had to lip read Ren's words: 'I'll be back in a minute. Just checking something out.'

He was still looking right at her.

 _CRAP._

'Hey, Ren,' Blake greeted, turning round as he silently crept up the tree from behind her.

Faunus instincts.

Ren just smiled.

Blake did not like the look of that smile.

'I think you need to tell Yang how you feel. Everyone knows she feels the same. Sun complicates things a little, but I'm sure if you're honest with him he'll understand. Don't be afraid, Blake. Love- like the two of you have- can never be suppressed.'

Ren's mouth moved in time to the words.

Blake glanced down at the others. They showed no sign of having seen her.

 _Ren must have actually said that._

He raised an eyebrow.

'Are you feeling alright, Ren?'

Both eyebrows.

'...It's just, you don't...usually talk… at all… and especially about relationships… I mean… you're telling me to make a move, but why haven't you told Nora how you feel?'

Ren looked sheepish, then affronted, then sheepish.

He settled on affronted.

'Do as you say and not as you do, right?'

A barely perceptible nod.

'And everyone knows that I like Yang?'

Another nod.

'Except Yang?'

A sigh, and then a nod.

Blake groaned.

Ren reached to lay a hand on her shoulder, and then froze.

'Thanks for the support,' Blake said, and it truly meant a lot to her that Ren felt the need to say that.

Ren smiled, and withdrew his hand.

An awkward silence began.

'Well, goodbye,' they said at the same time.

They both cringed.

 _Have the most awkward people of our friendship group talk to each other, and the conversation was always going to be painful…_

Blake climbed down the tree, and set off to find Yang.

 _Ren's right. I have to tell her how I feel. This is the perfect time- we're not caught up in school work, or trying to save Remnant from destruction._

 _But they're all deluded. She doesn't like me back. To her, it's just a close friendship._

 _So I'll tell her how I feel-_

 _No, I'll write a note-_

 _A note she'll see in the morning._

 _When I'm gone._

 _I'll pack up my stuff and go and camp out in one of those caves or something, I'll tell the others I'm okay, of course._

 _Well, I'm not okay._

 _But at least I won't have to see the look of horror on Yang's face when she realises all the thoughts I must have been having yesterday when she wore that stupid towel._

 _Maybe in a couple of months our friendship will be back to nor-_

Even Blake, the master of anxious internal monologue, couldn't continue to monologue whilst unconscious.


	3. Sweet and Sour

**Author's Note: this chapter is almost 6,000 words, so go get a snack or something. Oh, and a stress ball.**

 **Day 2, continued**

On her bedside table, Blake's scroll rang.

Yang looked at the caller ID, and groaned.

 _I suppose it's my moral obligation, as a friend…_

'Hey, Sun.'

'Yang? I was hoping to talk to Blake- Dust, that sounds rude, I mean, uh, how are you, Yang?'

 _I've been better._

'Oh, you know... the usual.'

There was an awkward silence before she added: '... Sup?'

'Oh, I uh, I was just hoping to talk to Blake, because I rang her earlier and her mind was elsewhere, so, uh… did she leave you her scroll or something? I was kind of hoping she'd call me, but I guess she's busy.'

The last sentence sounded like Sun was talking to himself.

 _I detect a hint of resentment there…_

'She's busy,' Yang agreed.

She looked down at the sleeping figure on her bed-

 _Why did I put her in my bed? Wait, let's not psychoanalyse that..._

When Yang found her, slumped like a rag doll against a tree, Blake's aura had been glowing fiercely, but there was still blood matted at the back of her head. She must have been too distracted to put a barrier up against the attack.

 _She's busy being unconscious._

'Oh, got a lot of Grimm to hunt, huh?'

'Yep. I'm just, uh, taking a bit of a break up in the trees for a sec.'

Sun laughed. 'I'm jealous.'

He didn't question why Blake would have given Yang her scroll.

 _Either I'm a brilliant liar, or he is far too trusting._

Yang didn't want to tell him the truth, partially because he would find out (more so than he likely had already) what a terrible, irresponsible person Yang was, partially because Yang knew that Blake wouldn't want Sun worrying about her unnessarily.

She'd already panicked and rung Ozpin, who had told her that (from what he could see via scroll) Blake appeared to be healing well, and wouldn't need to be transported back to Beacon.

Yang mostly didn't want to tell Sun the truth because he might get all Boyfriendy, and she didn't want to deal with that.

'I'll tell her to give you a call when she comes back, then?'

'That would be great, thanks. Well, uh, see you back at Beac-'

'Are you busy right now? Can I ask you something?'

There was a pause.

'No, it's fine, I'm on my lunchbreak. Just grabbed a banana, actually. Is there something wrong?'

Yang took a deep breath.

She didn't particularly like Sun, though she acknowledged that that was through no fault of his own. And he could tell it to her straight in a way that her friends never could. It was time for a reality check.

'...I'm in love with Blake. What do I do?'

Silence.

 _What if he tells Blake oh Dust what if he tells Blake-_

'Hello?'

'Sorry, I am still here. Just, uh, processing things…'

Yang nodded, and then remembered he couldn't see her. 'I gotcha. It's a lot to take in.'

'Okay, so here's my personal opinion on this,' Sun said a while later. 'I don't think you should tell her.'

Yang had not expected that.

'In my experience, and hoo boy I fell for a _lot_ of friends before I met Blake- in my experience, these feelings eventually go away. Telling the person just makes them more intense, and risks changing the dynamics of your friendship.'

Yang thought back to yesterday, when Blake told her that she didn't want things to change between them.

 _I guess he's right..._

'How long have you felt this way?'

Yang blushed. 'Pretty much ever since I met her.'

'Ah.'

'I don't think I can ever feel the way I do about her for someone else,' Yang blurted out. 'She's so brilliant, and…'

'She is,' Sun agreed.

Yang didn't like the pride in his voice.

 _She's not_ yours. _At least, not yet..._

'Well, I'm here to talk if you ever want to rant to me about the struggles of unrequited love. I know that sounds a bit weird, seeing as I'm hopefully practically Blake's boyfriend, but I'm not threatened or anything- I've been in your position before, and I know it's not fun.'

Her head was swimming.

'How do you know it's unrequited?'

She clapped a hand over her mouth.

 _Dust, that's the blunt way of asking it…_

'Well, uh, no offence, but if Blake was into you, don't you think she would have shown it somehow? I know she's not the type to make the first move, but even when I was just getting to know her, I didn't think she saw you as anything other than a really great friend and hunting partner. Why agree to go on dates with me if she liked you?'

As dickish as those words sounded, Sun's voice was the perfect mix of bemused, deeply apologetic, and pitying, so Yang couldn't hate him. She knew he was telling the truth.

 _Well. That's settled it._

'You haven't been like, trying it on with her have you? Blake's not bigoted at all, but that kind of thing makes her uncomfortable, whoever it is. She likes all that courting stuff in those books she reads, not seduction attempts. She's probably too afraid to tell you that, though... not that I think you'd do something as disrespectful as that, of course!'

 _No, I totally didn't saunter round in just a towel yesterday, and then make sexual gestures..._

'...Yang?'

'I've got to go.'

'I didn't mean to upset y-'

Yang hung up.

* * *

No sooner had she put Blake's scroll back down, fighting back tears, than a reminder flashed up:

TELL YANG. TELL SUN.

Yang didn't even have a second to process the implications of that before another reminder took over the screen:

...OR, ALTERNATIVELY, TELL SUN, THEN YANG?

She blinked the tears away, confusion temporarily overriding heartbreak.

 _Well, it's not 'heartbreak'-_

 _It totally is heartbreak._

 _ANYWAY..._

 _Tell us what?_

Yang clicked on the reminder. It was dated '12:00 today'. Yang had rung Ruby (in tears over finding Blake) at 12:34.

 _This must have been what she was doing when she got attacked._

She pondered the meaning of it.

Supposing Sun was correct (and Yang knew in her gut that he was), Blake wanted to tell her that she made her uncomfortable by being so flirty.

 _Blake didn't want things to change between us… and then I stood around in a towel, and made creepy jealous sexual comments about her and Sun. Anyone with eyes would know that I was interested in her, and that distresses her._

 _Is it the fact that it's me, or the fact that we're both female?_

Neither option was particularly appealing.

Yang sighed.

 _No point beating myself up over it all over again. She'll talk to me about it, and then I'll- well, I can't tell her how I really feel, because Sun pointed out that that would just make things worse. If she accuses me of being into her, I'll deny it._

 _And then maybe one day I'll wake up and not dream of being with her…_

Blake sighed in her sleep.

Yang watched, literally on the edge of her seat (well, bed).

A few minutes passed.

 _Nope. Not ready to wake up yet._

 _I'll just have to avoid her until the feelings pass- actually, no, that could completely end our friendship._

 _So what the hell do I do?_

She shook her head to clear her thoughts.

 _Okay… so what does she want to tell Sun?_

Yang briefly entertained the notion that Blake was going to tell Sun that she was actually in love with her, not him.

 _What a plot twist that would be!_

 _Yeah, it'll happen when Ursa fly..._

Blake seemed pretty happy with Sun, so it was likely that she actually had _good_ news for him.

Nothing particularly noteworthy had happened on their mission so far.

And then it occurred to her.

 _...Oh._

 _Be happy for them, Yang._

 _Knowing Blake, she's more likely to strike up the courage to ask Sun out via scroll, but she'd_ like _to do it in person after we get back from Beacon, in a really cute, shy, romantic way._

 _Either option, they'll both be very happy._

Yang couldn't stop the tears this time.

 _At least when she's actually going out with Sun I'll have no choice but to get over her._

Sobbing, Yang moved over to kneel next to Blake's face.

 _It's for the best._

 _Imagine if I'd acted like this in Mountain Glenn- Blake might not have made it out of there alive._

 _How could I be such a selfish, inappropriate..._

She stopped thinking, overwhelmed by grief and guilt. Blake was going to wake up with tears in her hair, but that couldn't be helped.

And then Blake stirred.

And whispered Yang's name, and opened her eyes.

Yang restrained herself for ten seconds, before giving in and crushing Blake in a hug.

'I'm so sorry!' she choked out, and wept.

* * *

Yang had no idea how long they spent like that, but eventually she let go of Blake and wiped her eyes.

'You don't need to apologise for yesterday again,' Blake said quietly. 'I forgive you. I just want us to go back to being normal around each other.'

Yang stood up, and winced.

 _All that bending over the bed really kills your back..._

She looked at Blake lying there, still weak and pale, and welled up again.

'Yang? What's wrong?'

'Come here,' Blake said a moment later, because Yang couldn't begin to explain.

Yang climbed in next to Blake, and Blake crawled onto her lap.

'Are you feeling okay?' Yang asked.

Blake nodded. 'I'm guessing I was out for a while.'

Yang just looked at her.

'...I'm fine, Yang,' Blake declared, resting her head on Yang's shoulder.

'Are you sure? Because you're actually talking to me, and, like, touching me-'

Blake stiffened.

 _Oh shit, now I've gone and done it-_

'I was knocked unconscious,' Blake said slowly, looking into Yang's eyes. 'And I think I got some sense knocked into me, because now that I've woken up, I've realised that you already apologised for yesterday, and that I was being very immature ignoring you earlier.' She paused. 'I don't want us to act weird around each other for any more of today... I hope it didn't upset you too much, finding me like that.'

'I'm the reason you got hurt,' was all Yang could say, holding Blake tighter.

 _I'm allowed to hold her like this, I'd hold any friend like this if they'd been hurt like she had- okay, maybe not Weiss… or Pyrrah… or anyone else… but it's supposed to be different with Blake, she's my partner._

 _And she started it, so I'm not making her uncomfortable._

Blake tucked a piece of hair behind Yang's ear, and Yang came back to the present.

'It was my fault, for not paying attention,' Blake said, frowning. 'Don't blame yourself.'

'But if I hadn't done all that stupid-'

Yang went cross-eyed looking down at the finger on her lips, and Blake smiled.

'You apologised. Don't keep beating yourself up over it.'

'Friends again?' Yang mumbled around Blake's finger.

'We were always friends, Yang.'

' _I didn't think she saw you as anything other than a really great friend and hunting partner. Why agree to go on dates with me, if she liked you?…'_

 _Friends is all we're ever gonna be, and that kills me..._

'Are the others worried about me?' Blake asked a bit later. 'Maybe I should ring and tell them I'm okay.'

'I'll ring Ruby in a bit and say you've woken up, but I told them I'd only ring if you had to be brought back to Beacon. Ruby reckoned that you got attacked by the last Nevermore, and last I heard they were all going after it… I hope it suffers-'

'Yang!'

'Well, it hurt you,' Yang argued.

'I'm okay,' Blake said again. Then:

'You know yesterday, when I was going to ring Sun?'

Yang froze.

'Yeah, what about it?'

'I didn't talk to him, in the end.' Blake looked down at the floor, blushing. 'I knew he'd understand, and he'd be comforting… but I didn't want him, I wanted you.'

 _What?_

'But you-'

'I wanted you,' Blake repeated. 'But I didn't want you to see me so… afraid. So helpless. I panicked, and then… I'm sorry.'

'What are you apologising for?' Yang asked.

 _All that jealousy for nothing…_

'For pushing you away like that, I guess.'

'You now I'd never judge you for being afraid of storms, right?' Yang said gently.

Blake nodded, and buried her head in Yang's neck.

And, barring unrequited love, all was well again.

* * *

Yang had rung Ruby, and explained privately that she wanted some time alone with Blake before they went out hunting again.

Ruby, the brilliant sister that she was, had said that they could have all the time they needed, and added that, after hours of searching, they had finally found the final Nevermore, and that one of them would call Yang back once it had been dealt with.

If she was honest, Yang had expected to have a proper heart to heart with Blake, but instead Blake had just climbed into her lap again, and they'd fallen into a comfortable silence.

Yang had almost fallen asleep when Blake whispered her name.

She was so quiet that Yang would have brushed it off as a hallucination, had she not felt the vibrations of Blake's mouth on her neck.

'I have to tell you something tomorrow morning,' Blake whispered.

Yang stiffened, and then forced her body to relax. She lifted her head off of Blake's, and looked down at the girl in her lap.

 _I need to let her tell me how she really feels about me, about how I've acted. I owe her that. She says she accepts my apology… but it must be still bothering her._

'I know what it is,' Yang said, at the same time that Blake pleaded, 'Promise you won't judge me!'

Blake froze, and then looked up at Yang…

Yang was terrified.

Blake had been a bit sickly pale before, but now she reminded Yang of a corpse. Her lips were white.

'You know what I have to say?' Blake repeated, trembling.

Yang moved to hold Blake's hand, and Blake recoiled like she was about to hit her.

'Hey, it's okay, Blake,' Yang said helplessly, gently grasping Blake's sweaty hand in her own. 'I'm not going to judge you, I'd never judge you for something you have a complete right to say to me. I'm happy that you want to tell me, actually.'

 _Okay, that's laying it on a bit thick, who actually wants to be told that they're being a perverted creep?…_

'I can't help how I feel about you, and you can't help how you feel about me,' Yang continued, feeling Blake's pulse spike as she said that. 'But we can help our actions.'

'And-' Blake stopped, and swallowed. 'Can you pass me a drink of water, please?'

Yang handed it over, and watched as Blake spilled half of the glass down herself trying to drink. She tenderly took the glass out of Blake's shaking hand, and put it back on the table.

 _I don't remember her looking this ill when she accidentally told us she was a Faunus-_

 _Well, she did run away for two fucking days, so I suppose this is the less extreme reaction…_

 _Oh Dust, I hope she doesn't run away again._

 _I need to make it clear that she has no reason to fear my response._

'How _do_ you feel about me, Yang?' Blake asked, looking so miserable that Yang would have swept her up in her arms and given her a hundred little kisses on her face to cheer her up- if Yang hadn't been the cause of all this to begin with.

'I lo-'

 _Nope! Don't go there! Don't completely freak her out..._

'I really care about you, Blake, and I'm sorry if I've acted in a way that's made you think I… look, you can tell me what you need to tell me, and I promise I won't hate you or think any less of you, I'll understand, and give you a big ol' hug, and then we can go back to being friends like before. How about it?' Yang finished with a grin.

 _That was one Sun-worthy, feelings-hidey-speech, damn!_

 _Hopefully that will ease her worri-._

Blake didn't appear to be breathing.

Yang freaked the fuck out.

'Blake?... What did I say? I'm sorry- I- Blake- speak to me!'

Blake started to gasp. Yang fought the urge to hold her tight, because that would only make things worse.

'Breathe, c'mon, in...out...in...copy me...there ya go…'

Once she was convinced Blake wasn't dying, Yang let out her own breath.

'I'm gonna fetch you some of Ruby's sweets from her cabin, okay? You need the sugar.'

Blake managed a weak nod as Yang gently lay her down on the bed.

Yang never ran so fast in her life. Thankfully, she knew all of Ruby's common 'hiding places'.

'Here. One gummy worm. Just what the doctor ordered.'

It became clear that Blake was in no state to feed herself, so Yang ripped the worm in two, pulled Blake into a sitting position, and nudged one half at Blake's lips. Blake's mouth opened obediently.

Yang watched to make sure she didn't choke on it, but Blake was eating fine, albeit robotically.

 _What the fuck did I say?_

The sugar seemed to have an immediate effect, because Blake sat up straighter.

You couldn't have paid Yang to take that hand off her waist, though.

'Sorry,' Blake said, looking at the wall.

Yang was speechless.

'Yang… I don't think you really know what I have to say to you. You might have a suspicion, but… it's going to change our friendship forever.'

'It doesn't have to,' Yang said desperately. 'I'll understand-'

Blake's eyes froze her in place.

'I can't settle for _understanding_ , I realise that now. I-'

Blake choked back a sob, and it took all of Yang's self control to just sit there and not hold her, or wipe the tears away.

'I'm selfish, and twisted, and-'

'You're not any of those-'

'JUST LISTEN TO ME!'

Blake gasped. 'Sorry, I shouldn't have…I… I can't do this. I can't tell you in person like this. I can't stand to see the look on your face… wait until tomorrow morning, please?'

'Okay,' Yang said stupidly.

Blake pushed Yang's arm away, and ran to the bathroom.

The door slammed shut.

 _I'm getting deja vu…_

Yang's scroll rang.

Jaune.

She pressed reject.

 _I'll call him back in ten minutes… once I can get my head slightly sorted out._

Yang was now heartbroken, and very very concerned about whatever it was Blake had to tell her.

 _Is she going to tell me that I gross her out so much that she wants me to switch teams or something?_

 _But then what did she mean when she called herself 'twisted'?_

 _None of this makes any sense…_

And then Yang's heart broke even further, because not even the sound of their shower could hide the fact that Blake was currently having a complete mental breakdown.

There was one thing Yang was sure about, though.

It was because of her.

* * *

Yang opened her mouth to ask the others how-

'We are _not_ talking about that Nevermore,' Jaune said. 'It's banned. I can't believe I still want to be a Hunter after that.'

'I can _never_ believe you want to be a Hunter, Jaune,' Weiss said drily, but there was less snark in her delivery than usual.

 _Okay-dokey then..._

'Isn't this great, guys?' Jaune said cheerily a moment later, swallowing half a baguette in one mouthful.

The rest of team JNPR gave enthusiastic nods in agreement.

'S'besht,' Ruby mumbled through a mouthful of pancakes.

Weiss glared at her. She cut her own pancake into several small pieces and speared one with her fork, before delicately popping it into her mouth. A vision of etiquette.

'You better like it,' she threatened Yang and Blake. 'Ruby and I didn't get roped in and spend all that time chopping down trees for nothing.' She looked around the room with barely concealed pride. 'We did do an adequate job, though.'

They were sat cross-legged in a circle on several striped picnic blankets, surrounding what could only be described as a 'feast'. Team JNPR's battered lockers were lined up along one wall, explaining where the food had appeared from.

Yang noted the haphazard way in which Nora had hammered all the logs into place.

'Seems as stable as Ruby's bed in our door room,' she joked, though she didn't feel like joking. She didn't even feel like eating- the pizza was half gone already, but she'd hardly tasted it.

 _What is up with Blake, I'm so worried about her…_

Jaune waved a hand in dismissal. 'Pfft, it'll be fine. Anyone want any salsa?' He offered the pot round, pausing at Blake. 'Blake? You sure you're okay? You're not eating much.'

Blake shook her head, holding up her barely touched tuna sandwich. 'I'm fine.'

Nobody pushed it, probably chalking it up to the Nevermore attack earlier.

Yang had to force herself not to intervene.

 _I'll find it all out tomorrow morning._

Ruby started playing a game on her scroll. Syrup dripped down her fork-holding hand as she attempted to distractedly cram more pancake into her mouth.

Weiss twitched.

Yang waited.

She didn't have to wait for long.

'Okay, everyone put your scrolls in the middle, okay?' Weiss huffed. 'We're supposed to be having a nice, social lunchtime.'

As the rest of the group fished out their scrolls, Ruby whined a little.

Weiss raised an eyebrow, immune to Ruby's puppy-dog eyes. Ruby sighed and surrendered her scroll.

Yang finished her pizza and decided to pick dessert, noting that whenever she was faced with a frustrating situation and couldn't just punch something, she seemed to turn to food instead.

 _I have anger issues and I eat as a coping mechanism. Just great._

She scanned the offerings: fruit, pancakes, more sour gummy worms, chocolate, a fancy jar of boiled sweets with a ribbon round it, more chocolate, cake…

Wait.

Yang's eyes snapped back to the jar of sweets.

 _Ooh, so fancy…_

Sometimes Yang and Ruby were very very similar.

'Jaune, where did you get all this food from?' Yang asked, finally considering the question worth asking.

Jaune finished spreading chocolate spread on half a bagel- or rather, finished placing half a bagel underneath a jar's worth of chocolate spread- and then answered Yang.

'We asked Sun and Neptune to load us up with everything Beacon had to offer,' Jaune boasted. 'So them being stuck with Professor Port wasn't all bad, right Blake?'

'I guess not,' Blake said, without much enthusiasm.

Again, no one else really seemed to notice Blake's behaviour.

Yang reached for the jar of sweets, hoping that, if she ate enough, the resulting sugar rush would block out her worries.

 _Huh, this bow reminds me of Blake's-_

'Yang… no!' Ruby yelled, causing Weiss to choke on a strawberry in surprise.

'What?' Yang asked, as Ruby busied herself with hitting Weiss on the back.

Yang wasn't convinced that the heiresses' blush was entirely down to being unable to breathe. She noted that Ruby and Weiss were sharing strawberries and cream.

 _Interesting…_

 _God, this lid is really hard to ope-_

'Hey!' Yang said, 'if you wanted one of those sweets you could have just asked, Weiss!'

Weiss was muttering to herself as she straightened the jar's bow.

'They're for Blake, not you, you dolt.'

'Sun got them for you, Blake,' Ruby added.

 _Is this what he meant by 'all that courting stuff'?_

Blake took the jar wordlessly.

'...Blake?' Ruby asked hesitantly. 'Are you okay?'

Blake was staring at the bow, but Yang could tell she wasn't even looking at it.

'Blake, Ruby asked you a question!' Weiss hissed.

Blake looked up. 'Oh, uh…' she glanced at Yang, and then looked at Ruby.

'Thanks for handing me this, Ruby,' she said quietly. 'I guess I'm just a bit exhausted from this morning.'

'No problem,' Ruby said, mollified. She went back to licking cream off her hand, earning a look of disgust from Weiss.

'Do you want one?' Blake asked, offering the jar to Yang.

'Are you sure? They're for you, after all.'

'There's enough for all of us,' Blake said firmly.

 _She sure doesn't seemed wooed by Sun's little display of affection…_

 _But then Blake never really shows how in love she is with him. She keeps it all inside, I guess._

'I'll try one!' Nora exclaimed, reaching her hand into the jar before Yang had even opened her mouth to respond.

Blake blinked, and then smiled at Yang, offering her a sweet again.

Yang reached her hand in-

'EUGHHH!'

Ren stared at the spit-covered sweet in his hand, and sighed.

'It's not polite to spit out your food, Nora.'

'But Ren… it tasted so gross….' Nora moaned. She snatched a piece of cake off of Ren's plate and stuffed it in her mouth.

'Tha's better.'

Ren put the sweet on his plate, wiped his hand on his trousers, and reached for more cake.

Yang shrugged, and took a sweet anyway.

 _I like sour things, it can't be that ba-_

Yang made grabby-hands at the paper napkins, gagging.

Blake handed her one, looking very concerned.

As delicately as possible, Yang spat out the taste bud-offender into the napkin.

'That tasted,' Yang declared, after much deliberation, 'like unicorn ejaculate.'

'You've tried it?' Pyrrah deadpanned, as Weiss spluttered and moved to cover Ruby's ears.

'I'm not a child, Weiss,' Ruby whined.

'Can you be a bit more descriptive?' Blake asked, laughing.

'It was sickly sweet,' Yang said, her stomach churning slightly at the memory. She chugged down a glass of fizzy drink to drown out the aftertaste.

And then three more glasses, because hey, why not.

Blake had gone back to staring at the jar again.

Yang noticed that her hands were shaking.

 _How can I check if she's alright without everyone noticing…_

Blake stood up.

The jar slid from her grasp, and smashed into tiny pieces on the floor.

Ruby gasped.

Blake looked down. She stared blankly at the shards.

No one moved.

'It's been a nice picnic,' she said, her voice flat. 'Thank you all for setting it up. I would stay to help you clear up, but-' Blake's ears twitched, '-there's a pack of Grimm circling the treehouse. Yang and I will take care of them for you.'

And she was gone.

Yang listened, but heard no growls, no sounds of Blake attacking.

 _Maybe she just made it up about the Grimm as an excuse to get away. Dust knows, she's fond of running..._

'What the hell was that about?' Jaune exclaimed, looking at Yang.

They all turned to her.

'I don't know,' Yang said honestly. 'She said-'

There was the unmistakeable sound of Gambol Shroud sinking into a victim's flesh.

'...She said _what_?' Weiss asked, but there was no one left to answer.

* * *

Yang climbed down from branch to branch, cursing the others for building the treehouse so far up.

 _Last time Blake was too preoccupied by her thoughts- and she's definitely obsessing about something- she got hurt. I can't let her get hurt again._

 _We're supposed to stick together, Dust dammit Blake-_

She landed on the forest floor, immediately surrounded by Grimm.

 _They must have scented the food._

Yang cut a path through to Blake, Ember Celica flashing. Blake was slicing through a pack of Beowolves with ease.

After a few minutes, the area around the treehouse was cleared, but Blake moved on, killing anything in her path, and all Yang could do was follow.

 _If she had my semblance, I'm pretty sure her eyes would be red right now..._

Once again, time ceased to have meaning as Blake went on the rampage, whilst Yang just watched- the reverse of their behaviour this morning.

Who was Yang to intervene, to demand she stop? Wasn't this exactly how she behaved when she wanted to release her frustration into the world?

It was like watching her own mirror image.

As she fought the odd Grimm, Yang managed to stay pretty calm.

She'd gotten into the habit of silencing her fears with 'I'll find out tomorrow.'

Tomorrow had a lot to answer for.

It began to rain.

Yang realised that a) not only did she have no idea where they were, b) their scrolls were still in the treehouse, so they couldn't ring the others for directions or help.

Lightning flashed.

Thunder boomed.

Yang looked at Blake's shaking shoulders, and took charge.

* * *

Yang sighed.

Another storm that didn't appear to be letting up anytime soon.

'I sure didn't expect to be sleeping in a cave all night,' she complained. 'Did you, Blake?'

'Yeah, actually.'

'Huh?'

Blake blinked at Yang like she'd forgotten she had company. Yang determined that the colour in her cheeks wasn't entirely down to the campfire.

'Nothing.'

'Weiss is probably regretting that scroll policy now,' she added a moment later.

'She'll be kicking herself,' Yang agreed. 'They know we can take care of ourselves, though.'

Blake laughed. 'I'm not sure I can. I'm lucky you found me.'

'I'm lucky I met you,' Yang said, because she felt like being honest.

Blake rested her head on Yang's shoulder. 'I'm lucky I met you, too.'

'Do you want a sour gummy worm? I nicked a bag from the feast.'

'Uh, sure. I actually prefer sour sweets...wait, where did you even keep these?'

Yang patted her chest with a wink.

'Yang!'

Yang chuckled, and dropped three worms in her mouth, the acidity making her eyes water.

They ate in comfortable silence for a while.

'Yang-'

'Blake-'

'You go first!' they said at the same time. And grinned at each other.

'You go,' Yang said, slipping an arm around Blake's waist and pulling her closer.

 _This is the last time I'll get to do that…_

'I was just going to say that… if I seem a little weird tonight, it'll make sense tomorrow morning. So please don't judge me until then,' Blake begged.

'Weird how?' Yang asked, amused.

Blake blushed again, playing with her hair. Then she sat up and scooted back a little.

'Weird like…this…'

She kissed Yang on the cheek.

Yang's heart soared...

...and then plummeted, like Icarus.

 _She feels guilty about me being stuck in this cave, and about tomorrow morning… this is her way of apologising for it. Oh Blake, always apologising for things that aren't your fault..._

Yang cupped Blake's face in her hands. Blake's eyes were full of fear, but she wasn't behaving as scarily as she had done back at the cabin, to Yang's great relief.

'Hey, you don't have to do that,' Yang said gently. 'I told you, I understand about tomorrow.'

Blake opened her mouth to reply, and then closed it again. After a moment she closed her eyes, too.

'I'm not sure how tomorrow is going to work, actually,' Blake said slowly. 'I hadn't planned for the day to go like this.' Her eyes opened, and she took a deep breath. 'So, because of tomorrow, could you take pity on me and…'

 _Why is Blake staring at my lips?_

 _She's not staring at your lips, idiot. You wish she was staring at your lips-_

 _She totally is staring at my lips!_

… _Okay, yes._

 _But that's probably because she's thinking that if you kiss her now, you'll realise you're not into her, and it'll all be sorted before she has to lecture you for your behaviour._

Yang watched Blake chicken out of her plan.

'Forget what I was saying, like I said, I'm really selfish and-'

Blake was silenced by a kiss.

A really, really good kiss.

Blake's lips were all soft and just wonderful…

Yang fought the urge to moan, because that would ruin the moment.

Blake threw her arms around Yang's neck, and Yang pushed a hand through Blake's hair, the touch of her hand on Blake's Faunus ears making the other girl shiver.

 _Could my life just end here, please?_

 _Or maybe Blake can decide that we need to have sex right now, so I can be repelled by her stunning body?_

'Well, that was fun,' Yang said a minute later.

 _I never pictured Blake tasting like sour gummy worms, but here we are..._

 _Ah. This was supposed to be the kiss that made me realise I don't love her._

 _Your plan… really fucking failed, Blake. I'd go so far as to say it 'backfired, bigtime'._

Still. Yang could deal with that in the morning.

Blake was holding a finger to her lips with a look of astonishment. She met Yang's eyes, and her face fell.

'You only kissed me because you thought I wanted you to,' she accused.

'Well, yeah?' Yang said, completely lost.

 _Okay,_ now _she's actually acting weird..._

Blake's face fell so far down that Yang was surprised it wasn't on her neck. 'What are we going to tell Sun?' she moaned.

 _What are we going to tell Sun? Dust, who cares about Sun right now?_

 _Shit._

 _What the hell am I supposed to say to Sun?!_

He'd told Yang to keep her feelings to herself and now she'd gone and kissed Blake-

Okay, the circumstances were a bit more complicated than that, but still.

'Sun doesn't need to know,' they said at the same time.

 _Well. That's that sorted._

'I enjoyed that,' Yang said, apparently feeling a desire to really shatter Blake's hopes for a non-infatuated best friend, and put herself right on Sun's hitlist.

Blake gave her a look that said: 'I know you're lying.'

 _Oh, you wish I was lying..._

Blake put her head back on Yang's shoulder. 'What was it you were going to ask me?'

'...What the hell happened at the treehouse?'

 _Dust, it's like I've taken a truth serum or something today…_

'It'll make sense tomorrow,' was all Blake said.

Yang wasn't sure which one of them was dreading tomorrow more.

 **Author's Note: I suppose this fanfic could be viewed as one of those 'everything could be resolved in ten seconds if they would just speak to each other!' fanfics, but hopefully you guys can see that it's a little bit more complicated than that. A summary of the past couple of chapters:**

 **Jealous Yang is jealous**

 **Ren tells Blake that Yang is in love with her.**

 **Because of a whole lot of internalised homophobia/ Blake being Blake, Blake doesn't believe Ren, and instead believes that Yang will be disgusted when she admits her true feelings**

 **Sun tells Yang that a) she shouldn't tell Blake how she feels and also b) that Blake doesn't feel the same way back**

 **Yang believes Sun, BECAUSE SHE'S AN IDIOT. BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART, YANG.**

 **And now they've kissed, but it totally wasn't the happy-ever-after kiss we all wanted...**

 **Oh Sun… why can't you disregard your empirical approach to life, in favour of the great ship Bumblebee?**

 **Yang and Blake, why can't you just** _ **see sense already**_ **?**

 **I'm a bit sick of writing 'tomorrow morning', so it's a good thing that in the next chapter that will become 'today'...**


End file.
